Structural tubes, especially those chosen because of space-related constraints or to avoid interference with a tube's neighbor because of its anticipated repositioning during use, come in a wide variety of transverse cross-sectional shapes and sizes. In the case of bicycle components such as rear wheel support braces and chain stays, for example, the list of such shapes is strikingly long: squares, rectangles, ellipses, flat-sided rounds, teardrops, and D-shaped cross-sections to which a round cable pocket is attached. And everyday more of these diverse shapes and sizes emerge, compounding the difficulty a would-be installer of a bike-mounted dog leash such as those taught by Leon in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,013,840 and 8,544,420 faces.
The mounting structure common to the cited dog leashes features inner and outer clamp members, each of which defines an elongated, generally flat face that, in use, extends in an upright direction. The inner clamp member of this pair, which is structurally a flat plate, is kept free of any protruding arm for its full length. The outer clamp member, on the other hand, is L-shaped. It has, in addition to an upright arm with a flat face which extends substantially the full length of one of its sides, an auxiliary arm. Disposed perpendicularly to the upright arm at its base, the auxiliary arm is located on the side thereof opposite to that of the upright arm's full length flat face.
Playing a critical role in the dog leashes as taught by Leon, the auxiliary arm is not only used, in assembled relation with a flexible coupling located at one end of each such leash, to secure the latter to the bicycle, but also when the mounting structure is optimally positioned on a bicycle's frame, this auxiliary arm projects outwardly from points thereon located downwardly of the bike's rear axle. As a consequence, harsh sideways pulls by an animal tethered with the leash to the bicycle are applied to points thereon unlikely to destabilize and tip it. Unfortunately, few sites on a bike's frame are ideal for so positioning the mounting structure; and all too often, one finds that any such site, on a particular bicycle, which would otherwise be optimal from a “positioning” perspective, only affords structural tubing with a transverse cross-sectional shape, or shapes, onto which this well known mounting structure cannot be reliably clamped.
In the area of bike-mounted dog leashes alone, a need exists for a mounting structure which can be clamped onto structural tubing, regardless of its transverse cross-sectional shape, in such a way that without the mounting structure damaging the tubing's finish, any rotation of the mounting structure about the tubing is eliminated.
An improved mounting structure is also needed to address a growing demand from bicyclists for dog leashes attachable to the right side of bicycles. Heretofore, the leashes have been predominantly attached to the left side of bicycles as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,840. Such an approach, primarily designed to meet the needs of off road users, has enabled installers of Leon's bike-mounted dog leashes to avoid certain space-related constraints imposed by the chain, sprockets and derailleurs, as well as an increasing number of gears—all of which, if present, are generally located on the bicycle's right side. Nevertheless, when a dog tethered to a bike is run, alongside of a bicyclist, down a busy trail or public road, safety concerns dictate that the leash should be attached to the bicycle's right side so that the risk of bodily injury to either the bike rider or the tethered animal—or to the public at large—can be minimized.
Further driving the need for an improved mounting structure is the lack of clamp friendly structural tubing in many personal carriers. Wheelchairs, power chairs, adult tricycles, shopping carts for the handicapped, and Segway® personal mobility devices, for example, all lack structural tubing with which, by fixedly pressing a short span of it between the respective flat faces of a pair of inner and outer clamp members and then holding them and the short span together in assembled relation with the use of nuts and bolts or the like, one could not only flexibly couple the outer clamp member's auxiliary arm to a slack-free, bendable dog leash, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 8,544,420, but also optimally position the leash for use with a personal carrier-tethered animal.